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eating disorders

The 2014 NEDAwareness Week runs from February 23rd-March 1st this year. NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association) has a yearly initiative to raise awareness of eating disorders, and increasingly uses social media as a tool to do so. The theme of 2014’s week is “I Had No Idea”, focusing on ending on misconceptions surrounding these disorders. The key messages this year are:

Eating disorders are serious illnesses, not lifestyle choices.

Education, early intervention, and access to care are critical.

Help is available, and recovery is possible.

NEDA is asking everyone to do one thing this year to dispel a misconception about eating disorders, with a huge range of ways to get involved, from putting up posters and distributing pamphlets to hosting an info session or serving as a speaker. NEDA also offers infographics and images to post on Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, NEDA is using the hashtag #adiosED to promote awareness on Twitter, and #capturehope on Instagram.

Promoting understanding is one of NEDA’s strongpoints. A variety of articles on the NEDAwareness website is available, with viewpoints from different genders, ages, races and socioeconomic statuses.

I’ve been searching the tags “pro-ana”, “pro-mia”, and “NEDAwareness” on Tumblr for the past few days and have put out a call for submissions about how the site has affected users’ perception of ED’s and if it has influenced their illness at all. Once I compile a good amount of submissions, I will post highlights at the end of NEDAwareness Week.

Whether it be participating in a NEDA Walk, blogging about eating disorders, participating in the Twitter and Instagram campaigns, or raising awareness in your community, everyone can be a part of saving a life. The link below has just several ideas and I encourage you to try one, or come up with your own way to spread awareness and break down misconceptions.

Throughout this project, I will be examining how feminism and eating disorders (especially the process of recovering from eating disorders) intersect. Much of the community surrounding people recovering and living with eating disorders (ED’s) exists on social media, particularly on blogging platforms. While social media can provide a supportive environment, often it can bring down those dealing with disordered eating. I am interested in how feminism informs the body positivity movement, the experience of someone living with an eating disorder, and how the community can foster recovery.

As a former member of the eating disorder community on Tumblr, I feel that I have a unique perspective on this issue. I plan on using information from different social media platforms, informal interviews with members of both the feminist and ED communities, and other sources, such as young adult fiction, academic journals, and organizations such as NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association).

The instances of eating disorders is rising in our population, especially in young women. There are a multitude of studies examining the comorbidity and mortality rates associated with ED’s, and the statistics are sobering. Anorexia Nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental health issue, up to 20% (Eating Disorders Coalition, 2007), and rates are increasing across socioeconomic and ethnic groups. With the obvious obsession with thinness, especially in the mainstream media, and the rise of cyberbullying, young people are increasingly more susceptible to developing disordered eating habits. Current events, such as Aerie’s #aeriereal campaign and the abundance of “pro-ana” and “pro-mia” pages on blogging platforms are of particular interest to me, as they raise questions of bodily autonomy and society’s unrealistic expectations of young women.

As a survivor of an eating disorder, this project has personal significance to me. I hope to critically examine the role of social media on eating disorders, along with the role of feminism in both active eating disorders and recovery.